``Semi-empirical multiprocessor performance predictions" 

Zhichen Xu, Xiaodong Zhang and Lin Sun 

Journal of Parallel and Distributed Computing, Vol. 39, No. 1, 1996,
pp. 14-28.


Abstract 

This paper presents a multiprocessor performance prediction methodology
supported by experimental measurements, which predicts the execution
time of large application programs on large parallel architectures
based on a small set of  sample data.  We propose a graph model to
describe application program behavior.  In order to precisely abstract
an architecture model for the prediction, important and implicit
architecture parameters are obtained by experiments.  We focus on
performance predictions of application programs in shared-memory and
data-parallel architectures.  Real world applications are implemented
using the shared-memory model on the KSR-1 and using the data-parallel
model on the CM-5 for performance measurements and prediction
validation.  We show that experimental measurements provide  strong
support for performance predictions on multiprocessors with implicit
communications and complex memory systems, such as shared-memory and
data-parallel systems, while analytical techniques partially applied in
the prediction significantly reduce computer simulation and measurement
time.